


A Traditional Holiday

by GayFairyRoyalty



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, cute holiday things, lots of cheesiness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-02-19 19:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13130949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GayFairyRoyalty/pseuds/GayFairyRoyalty
Summary: Marinette loves traditions, it’s what makes her holidays special. Over the years, Marinette has incorporated many traditions into her family’s holiday time. At one point, she started making traditions with her friends and classmates, even if she didn’t expect to.But most of all, she wanted to do something with Adrien. She had a plan, it was foolproof.





	1. Chapter 1

Marinette loved traditions, it’s what makes her holidays special. Over the years, Marinette incorporated many traditions into her family’s holiday time. At one point, she started making traditions with her friends and classmates, even if she didn’t expect to.

When she was very young, she had started a tradition of having a cookie making competition with her father, seeing who can make more cookies from scratch in an hour. Now, they have to make as many treats as possible in 3 hours, the more difficult to make the treat the better the score. Her mom keeps track of who’s won over the years.

When she was 6, she invited Nino over to her bakery for hot cocoa every morning in December before class and even on the weekends. He looks forward to December 1st every year, so they can get a start on their tradition.

When she was 7, she asked Rose if she wanted to decorate cookies with her every Thursday after class. Her parents would sell the cookies that they didn’t eat and give the money to Rose to surprise her. Rose cried the first time that they gave her the money, now she just politely accepts it.

When she was 8, she did an art trade with Nathaniel. They work on them all month and give them to each other at the end of the month. The drawings weren’t very good back then, but over time the drawings have become very intricate. She keeps every single one.

When she was 9, she had challenged Max to her favorite holiday themed game, Christmas Tractor racing. Every year they play the newest holiday themed games even if they’re meant for young children.

When she was 10, she made a Youtube video with Juleka for Juleka’s makeup channel. It was a makeup lookbook with a holiday theme, featuring Juleka’s holiday makeup tutorials and Marinette’s holiday fashion tips. Juleka has gotten pretty professional for her age. Each new video that they make comes with a new makeup look and new fashion tips.

When she was 11, she had Kim and Alix come to the bakery to make gingerbread houses. At one point a few years back, they had started making household items to go into the houses. It ended up being a contest on how they get really detailed and their houses keep getting bigger and better.

When she was 12, she started doing a holiday movie marathon with Mylene. Mylene hated scary movies so they always watch romantic holiday films instead. They always watch a few classics but end up watching a bunch of cheesy ones that Mylene gets emotional about while Marinette makes silly comments throughout the films.

When she was 13, she went to the annual Winter Rock Festival with Ivan. They went to see his favorite band The Zombie Skull Crushers and he also introduced her to Jagged Stone’s music there too. They always go together. Marinette absolutely loves hard rock and metal now.

When she was 14, she accidentally started an all-out winter fashion war with Chloe when she wore a cuter outfit than her. Every December, they would walk into class in the mornings and try and wear a better outfit than the other.

When she was 15, she met Tikki and when the holidays came close she knew that she needed a fun tradition with her kwami. She did research on ladybugs to find inspiration, it took her some time, but after a while, she had an idea. She found out that ladybugs hibernate during winter and thought it would be nice if Tikki was cozy and comfortable during that time of year. She decided that she will start making little hats and other warm items for her. Tikki now has hats, scarves, and soon will have a tiny coat.  
This year, she’s 17 and now she’s had Alya in her life for a few years. She was so excited to start a tradition with her best friend since they didn’t do anything a few years ago. She was thinking of doing their holiday shopping together like they did last year but apparently Alya had her own tradition that she wanted to start this year.

But most of all, she wanted to do something with Adrien. She had a plan, it was foolproof. Okay, maybe not foolproof because he could still say no. There is an annual Holiday Carnival that happens right before the holidays start. She knew this was her chance to finally ask him on a date. She had become close friends with him in the past few years once she got over her slight obsession with him. She still stutters but not as badly as she used to. Usually they hang out as a group with Nino and Alya, they sometimes hang out just them, but this is her chance to get to know him even more one-on-one.

She woke up at 5 am exactly on December 1st, and it was time for her traditions to start. She was definitely not an early riser, but that is during the other 11 months of the year. December mornings are very special to her family.

When her alarm went off, she grabbed her phone and practically jumped out of bed, waking Tikki, and rushed down to the floor of her room. She ran over over her desk, lifting her phone up and opened her group chat with Alya, Nino, and Adrien, typing out a quick good morning text 

[Me: Good morning my favorite people! It’s December 1st holy cow I’m excited.]

She immediately got a reply from Adrien. He’s always the first one awake. He probably woke up before her.

[Ultimate Meme: Good morning. I can’t believe it’s the first day of Christmas :3]

‘What a nerd,’ she thought to herself, smiling fondly down at the screen.. She put her phone down on her desk and headed downstairs in her pajamas to see her mother and father in the kitchen. She skipped over to them and gives them both kisses on the cheek.

“Good morning Mariette.” Her mother said with a sweet smile. 

“Good morning mama, good morning papa.”

“Good morning sweetheart.” Her father replied.

“Your breakfast is on the table. Don’t eat too fast, you always seem to do that.” Her mother tells her.

Marinette sat down at the table, seeing a fresh pain au chocolat and orange juice waiting for her. She ate quickly, thanking her parents for the breakfast as she put her dishes in the sink. Then she suck a few cookies in her hands and she headed back up the stairs to her room. Once she had closed the trap door she padded across the floor over to her desk chair and put the cookies down on the desk for Tikki, eyeing the clothes that she picked out the night before.

It’s the start of December so it’s officially the start of going head-to-head with Chloe. There was no holding back when it came to battle with the mayor’s daughter so in December she always takes her time to choose her outfits the night before school every day. Satisfied with the look she had chosen, Marinette put on her outfit, a baby pink cashmere oversized sweater, light blue jeans,a wool blue collared jacket embellished with silver grommets, black beads and Japanese-inspired white flowers, with a belt that comes around to turn into a bow in the front. She topped it off with a blue and pink floral scarf and pink glittery sneakers.  
She gave herself a final looking-over in her full length mirror. “Perfect,” she says out loud to herself. “Tikki what do you think, good enough to beat Chloe at her own game?”  
“You look fantastic Marinette!” said the little Kwami from her her spot next to the cookies.

A quick glance at her phone tells her that she has multiple texts from the group. Did they just wake up? She wondered as she opened her texts and read through the new messages.

[The Queen of the World: Good morning nerds! Mari why r u up so early what the hell ?]

She laughs at Alya’s text.

[Bubble Boy: Mar always wakes up early in December it’s just another tradition]

[Ultimate Meme: Yea I was wondering that too! She’s never up this early!]

[The Queen of the World: Geez Mari has so many traditions it’s hard to keep up w/ all of them every year lol]

[Bubble Boy: Dude you have no idea]

She chuckled, tapping out her reply to the group.

[Me: TRADITIONS!!!]

She sent off the message and checked the time. 5:32.

“Perfect timing.”  
She walked over to the hatch to exit her room and goes all the way downstairs to the bakery. In December, she also helped out her parents in the bakery in the mornings since they extra busy during this month. Her parents have already started putting out the pastries and other treats so she grabbed the next tray of baked goods, a batch of deliciously fragrant almond croissants, and headed back into the bakery. She balanced the tray with one hand and started to gently place the almond croissants into the glass case. By the time that they finish putting out all of them, it’s a little after 6 o’clock. Her mother pulled out a rag and broom, beginning the process of doing the morning cleaning of the bakery. So she doesn’t get in her mother’s way, Marinette vacated the storefront and ducked into the kitchen, where her father was just starting to make some fresh baguettes.

“What do you need me to do this morning papa?”

“You can start on the dough for the next few batches of baguettes, that’d be a great help.” He replied enthusiastically.

“Okay sounds great.”

Once she was finished with the dough, she checked the time on her phone. It was 7 o’clock already, so she decided to head upstairs to her room, checking her texts again as she went. Nino had messaged again. She typed out a message and pressed ‘send’. 

[Me: On your way?]

[Bubble Boy: Yea I was just about to text you lol just left the house]

[Me: What’s with us and our perfect timing this morning? It’s awesome!]

She took her phone to the bathroom with her and started her makeup routine. She only started wearing makeup when she started lycée and had to get permission from her parents. They aren’t strict or anything, they just don’t like that she’s growing up so quickly. She went with a pastel pink smokey eye with pastel blue on the inner corner of her eye, a touch of pastel purple underneath her eye and winged eyeliner with mascara. A few minutes after she finished with her bold makeup look, her phone beeped again. ‘Probably from Nino.’

She picked up her phone and checked her texts. Yup, it’s Nino.

[Bubble Boy: Guess where I am]

She rolled her eyes knowing exactly where he was. 

[Me: I guess you’re in the bakery.]

She immediately got a text back.

[Bubble Boy: Wow how did you know :O]

She laughed at the use of the emoji, knowing that he isn’t surprised that she knows where he is.

She headed on downstairs to the bakery and there he is, waiting for her by the glass case of pastries, obviously eyeing some of the macarons. There are already a bunch of customers, mostly regulars, in the bakery since they open at 7 am.

“Hey Nino.” She walked over to him and gives him a hug.

“Hey Mar! Hot cocoa time?” He smile wide and looks like an excited puppy.

“Heck yea it’s hot cocoa time!” She replied, just as excited.

They head on upstairs to the kitchen. He put down his schoolbag while Marinette got out the hot cocoa mugs with their name on it. When they were younger, a few years after they started this tradition of theirs, they decided to decorate plain white mugs so they would have their own hot cocoa mugs for this special occasion. She started making the famous Dupain-Cheng hot cocoa, a secret family recipe. It was one of their specialties in the bakery and was super popular during the holidays and when it starts getting cold.

She looked over at Nino, seeing him bouncing around excitedly. How is he so awake? Geez, she might do this every year, but she is still not a morning person. When she finished with the cocoa recipe, she poured it into the mugs and hands one to Nino. He looked so happy, it makes her smile.

“Oh man, I’ve been waiting all year for this!” He laughed. 

“Wow, you’re such a dork.” She said fondly as she started laughing too.

They both started to sip on the cocoa and Nino sighed blissfully into his mug, making her giggle.

“Just as good as I remember it.” He said softly, a small smile on his face.

For the next few minutes they sit in silence, content to drink their cocoa. Then Marinette opened her mouth to speak, hesitating before she can get a word out, too nervous to tell even Nino. But she has to, if she can’t tell one of her closest friends, then she won’t be able to even go through with her plan.

Steeling herself, she finally broke the silence. “Hey Nino?”

He looked up from his cocoa with a questioning look on his face. “Yeah Mar?”

“I’m gonna do something and I need you to give me your opinion on it.”

Now he looked completely confused. “Mar, you’re worrying me. Is everything okay? What are you gonna do?”

“I’m-I’m..” She took a much needed breath. Inhale. Exhale. “I want to ask Adrien to go to the Holiday Carnival with me, like on a date.” She tensed up, patiently waiting for his answer.

“Mar, Mari, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, that is the best idea I’ve ever heard! Holy crud, you’re finally gonna ask out Adrien, this is great! When?! When will you ask him?! Please tell me it’s soon!” He got louder with every word he said, even more excited than her about this.

“So, you think that I should? Really?” She asked him.

“Yes! Definitely! Absolutely!”

“I’m planning to ask him today actually, well, if I get up the nerves to do it.” She sighed into her cocoa mug.

“I’m so excited for you! I need to be there to witness this!” He said still excited.

“I’ve been talking to Alya about it and she thinks it’s a great idea too.”

After they finished their hot cocoa, she collected the mugs and went over to the sink to hand-wash them, not wanting to ruin them in a dishwasher.

Then she picked up her phone from her counter to check the time. 7:26, great timing.

“Ready to head out?” Nino asked.

“Yeah let me just go grab my stuff.” She dashed up the stairs to her room and headed over to the other side of her room to get her schoolbag as Tikki flew into it, then returned to Nino downstairs.

“Let’s go.” She said with a smile.

They both headed downstairs just in time to see Alya walk through the doors of the bakery. She immediately walked over and to give Marinette a hug, releasing her a moment later to hug Nino. 

“Hey nerds, what’s up?” She finally said, her usual infectious grin beaming from her face. 

“Just had our first hot cocoa session of the month.” Marinette replied with an answering smile.

“Oh yeah, almost forgot about that. Sounds like fun. So, how was the famous Dupain-Cheng hot cocoa?”

“Heavenly!” Nino grinned enthusiastically as if he was getting another cup.

Marinette, suddenly struck with an idea, excused herself from the room and ran upstairs to the kitchen, returning with two thermoses in hand. She held out the thermos to Alya. “Here you go, I thought you would like some too!”

“No way! thanks, girl, you’re the best!” Alya gave her a one-armed hug, taking the thermos from Marinette. She opened it and took a small sip, sighing happily.

“So have you told Nino your plan?” She asked after taking a second sip.

“Yeah, she told me. I can’t believe this is finally happening, I’m so excited,” answered Nino.

“Mari, you better go through with this, because I will not forgive you if you don’t.” Alya said with a pointed look at Marinette.

“I will, I will, don’t worry.” She said quickly.

“We should go, it’s 7:39.” Nino interrupted, looking at his phone.

They left the bakery and started on their way to school. It’s a short walk, just down the street, so they’re in no rush to get there. They’re mostly quiet during the walk, but that’s mostly from them being tired. As they approached the building they see Adrien’s ride pull up to the front. Marinette immediately started freaking out internally. Nino started walking a little faster than the girls and headed over to the car. The door opened and out stepped Adrien,who doesn’t get two steps from the car when Nino reached him and gave him a hug.

“Hey dude!” Nino grinned, almost yelling in Adrien’s ear.

“Hey Nino, you’re way too excited for it not even being 8 am yet, wow.”

“I had Mar’s hot cocoa, so I’m in a good mood.”

“Ah yes, the famous Dupain-Cheng hot cocoa. I could so go for some of that right now.”

Right on cue, Marinette and Alya walked up to him and both gave him one armed hugs since they were both holding a thermos. Marinette held out the thermos she was holding and looked at Adrien.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Yup! I thought you would like some.” She said with a big smile on her face.

He took the thermos from her and took the lid off. Not paying attention to Mari warning him that it’s really hot.

“Wow, that’s hot. Good as hell but hot.” He said after taking a sip.

“Well no duh, Sherlock.” She rolls her eyes playfully at him. .

Another quick check of the time told them that they had a little over five minutes left to get to class. 

“Almost 8 guys. Let’s head inside.”

“Ugh I don’t want to be here.” Alya groaned.

“Dude, it’s almost winter break don’t worry.” Nino shrugged in response to her complaining.

“Thank god.” She groaned again.

Together they headed up the stairs to the school, joining the crowd of other students. As they made their way into the school, they spotted Sabrina looking nervous but impatient. She must have been waiting for Chloe, knowing what she’s like on the first of December with her and Marinette’s little rivalry. Thank goodness she hadn’t noticed Marinette yet.

The group walked into the classroom and took their usual places, Adrien and Nino sitting in their seats and Alya and Marinette perched on the boys’ shared desk. The room is pretty similar to their old classrooms so most of their classmates sit in the same spots as the past few years before, with an exception to Mylene who now sits next to Ivan, and Nathaniel who sits next to Alix and the few new students. So far only Juleka, Rose, Mylene and Ivan are in the room with them. Slowly the rest of the class trickles in over the next few minutes.

Just before the bell rang they heard a loud and shrill voice, getting louder and louder, signaling that the person it’s coming from is getting closer to the classroom. Chloe strutted into the room, followed as always by Sabrina. Marinette hopped off of the desk, facing towards Chloe. Chloe walks over to her desk and puts her bag down, then dramatically turns around to face Marinette. Everyone in the classroom watched with bated breath as the two girls looked each other over. Chloe is wearing a long-sleeved black and white striped dress that has a cloth belt wrapped around it, an olive green silk coat that doesn’t look like it’ll keep her warm with ruffles in the front, and black heeled boots.

They both look up and nod each other. Chloe won this round.

“Not bad though, you tried. But you didn’t try hard enough. You’ve done better.” Chloe said simply as if they always had simple conversations.

“Agreed.”

They both turn around and go to their friends.

“Girl, you look great today, not an opinion, it’s a fact.” Alya said when Marinette sat back on the desk.

“Hell yeah you do!” Nino agreed. 

“Mari, you do look great. I love the jacket by the way. Did you make it?” Adrien asked.

“Yes actually I did!”

“The craftsmanship is incredible.” He commented while looking over the jacket.

“I worked all last month on my outfits for this month, you have no idea.”

“Dude, we all know what you’re like. You lock yourself up in your room working on designs and barely eat unless someone, aka us, brings you food and forces you to stop what you’re doing and eat.” Nino explained.

“Ya know what, fight me Nino.” She retorted with as much seriousness as she can without laughing.

After about 10 seconds of silence all of them are laughing. Adrien with his head thrown back, Nino leaning over the desk cackling, and Alya snickering. Marinette looked over at them while she laughed and thought gratefully about how lucky she is to have them all in her life.

“I’d love to see that, let me know when you do so I can film it.” Kim commented while he passed the group to get to his seat.

Now they’re laughing even harder. It’s a great feeling. Then, in walked their teacher. He’s looks fairly young to be teaching. On their first day of class, almost all the students quickly fell head over heels for him. He said that as a new teacher, he expected everyone to be curious of who he was, so in turn he let everybody ask him questions. It ended up being a session of ‘Are you single?’ and ‘What do you look for in a partner?’

“In your seats everybody.” Monsieur Laurent said loudly so everyone in the room can hear over all of the talking.

Groans filled the classroom as the students made their way reluctantly to their seats. Alya and Marinette jump down from the desks and take their spots behind the boys in the next row up. 

Class flew by with passing notes, disruptions by Kim, rude remarks from Chloe, Max correcting the teacher, and Alix throwing balls of paper at Kim.

‘Geez, why don’t those two date already,’ Marinette wondered as yet another was of paper bounced off the boy’s head. 

Next thing they all know, the bell is ringing, signaling the end of class. The teacher called out something about homework but no one is really paying attention. As the students all packed up their bags, Marinette thought about her plan.

‘I need to do it soon, no, I’ll do it at the end of the day.’ She promised herself.

The next few classes and breaks passed by quickly as if it was Friday. Unfortunately it was only Thursday. Marinette was just trying to get through the rest of the school day without psyching herself out of her plan. Which is pretty hard since she spent most of the day trying to keep herself out of panic-mode. 

‘Holy Coco Chanel, I can’t do this,’ she thought desperately, gripping the strap of her purse with white-knuckled fingers. ‘What if I pass out? I’ll go to ask him and just faint right in front of him! What if I word-vomit and just never shut up and scare him away? No, you aren’t like that anymore, you got this! Nope, I don’t got this. Wow, at least use correct grammar when talking to yourself. UGH! What if I just start screaming right now? Would anyone question me or does everyone already think that I’m nuts?’ Her panicked internal thought train continued on full-steam, blocking out everything around her.  
All off a sudden, she felt someone poking her in the side multiple times. She looked up from the spot of wall she was staring at, and saw Alya, looking at her with concern. She zoned back into reality and realized that her friend was saying something.

‘-ette, Marinette, hello, hello, hello!” Alya called, getting louder with every word.

“Huh? What? Sorry! I was zoning.” Marinette finally responds.

“Girl, you know the bell rang a few minutes ago? We’re done for the day. Where were you just now?”

“Just stuck in my head, ya know?” She answered sheepishly, still looking a little dazed from being brought so suddenly back to reality. 

“Yea, I get you, are you alright girl? Is it about doing you know what with you know who?” Alya asked. 

“No, well, yes, ugh, no I’m not alright and yes it’s about doing you know what with you know who.” She answered, her voice so soft it was almost a whisper.

“Well, you’re running out of time. The guys are meeting us outside and we’re losing daylight.”

Marinette turned to Alya with a scared look on her face. Alya looked back sympathetically. Then she finally stood up and they both walked out of the classroom.  
As they get closer to the front of the building where the exit is, Mariette started feeling light-headed, as if she couldn’t breathe. She tried to talk herself down but only ended up doing the opposite.  
‘You can do this, You can do this, it’s only Adrien, one of your closest friends, the sweetest guy you know. he isn’t intimidating, he’s actually a complete dork.’ She reminded herself internally, her own mental voice practically yelling at herself in her head. ‘You are Ladybug. If you can face Hawkmoth’s wrath and his terrible akuma, then you can ask a boy out. You have to stop being so scared of this, stop being so scared of him. Stop being so scared of the outcome. Stop being so scared of everything, just stop being so scared. Just. Stop.’  
Next thing she knew, she was hyperventilating. Her body trembled and shook, tears blurring her vision. Alya immediately noticed the change in Marinette’s body tensing and jumped into action. She turned to Marinette, grabbing her arms and lowering her body to help her friend sit down on the floor in the hallway. She put her arms around Marinette lightly, so as not to put her body’s pressure onto her and scare her. Thank god the hallway was empty because having a crowd would make her panic more. Alya started inhaling and exhaling slowly to help even out Marinette’s breathing. She could’ve sworn she heard a tiny voice saying Marinette’s name too.

“Shhh, it’s okay Mari, shhh, it’s okay, don’t worry. It’ll be okay, just breathe with me okay.” Alya said, keep her voice low and soothing y so her friend could understand her.

It took about 3 minutes for Nino and Adrien to find them sitting there in the middle of the hallway on the floor. They must have gotten worried or curious, wondering why the girls weren’t outside yet. As they approached, they looked confused but from the panicked looks on their faces, they started to realize what was happening.

“Mari!” Both the boys cried out simultaneously, running over to where the girls sat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger, not really. One of my biggest headcanons in this show is that Marinette has severe anxiety and has panic attacks. And I know people sometimes hate when others push their problems onto the characters but fight me I don’t care. In this fic, Marinette Dupain-Cheng has Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
> 
> So this somehow turned into a multi-chapter fic and I have no idea how that happened. So, in this story, over the past few years, she has gotten closer with Adrien and Nino and also Chloe and her aren’t at each other’s throats since they’ve kind of grown out of their pettiness but not totally. Also, I think Mari is pure and would say fashion designer names instead of cursing bc it’s funnier than writing heck and holy chiz. I really like the texting styles that I used for the group, cause Marinette would type nicely, Adrien would have perfect damn grammar and use emojis, Nino doesn’t use punctuation and Alya uses text talk.
> 
> Marinette’s makeup: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/460422761885998728/  
> Marinette’s outfit: https://www.polyvore.com/winter_scarf_style/set?id=213541967  
> Chloe’s outfit: https://www.polyvore.com/fall_to_winter_fashion/set?id=231035421


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do the boys react to Marinette having an anxiety attack? Will Marinette be able to recover from it? Willl she finally ask Adrien out?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank @angels-falling-stars on tumblr for being my awesome beta reader!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

All of her senses were on overload. Her vision was blurred and everything was just way too loud. She heard Alya’s calm voice trying to ease her out of her attack.

This isn’t a new thing to happen. Since she became Ladybug, she has developed a lot of anxiety, way more intense than what she has experienced in the past, and after about a year and a half of being a superhero she started having full on anxiety attacks. She’s talked to Chat Noir about it and he said that he understands completely, that he too gets overwhelmed easily, and has strong anxiety, though his attacks aren’t as frequent as hers. At one point, she had to tell Alya about her frequent anxiety attacks. Alya once saw her in the midst of an attack when she was working on a skirt. She had been experimenting with a new fabric that she hasn’t used before and started getting frustrated, which quickly escalated to hyperventilating. Alya has gotten really good at comforting Marinette through her attacks and helping her through it. That’s why she knew exactly what to do when she saw Marinette’s body language change so rapidly. She wished that her triggers weren’t so dumb, and had to remind herself that while they might seem dumb in her mind, they are completely valid.

The noise level changed suddenly, adding extra voices. It took her a moment to realize that it was Nino and Adrien. She wanted to be embarrassed of the boys seeing her like this, but they also knew about her attacks. One day last year, she was up all night studying for a test the next day, and when she entered the classroom late the next morning she immediately broke down. Luckily Alya rushed her out into the hallway. The boys followed. Alya immediately tried to help her through it while the boys panicked like children, which was actually really funny when she thought about it later that day. After her anxiety attack, she explained to the boys that she suffers from severe anxiety and gets frequent anxiety attacks, she trusted them with this information, for they were her closest friends.

Then she remembered what had triggered her attack and started freaking out even more that Adrien was there with her. Alya slowly picked up on this information indirectly and knew what she needed to do.

“Hey guys, I think it’s a good idea if you give her some space this time. Please?”

“Oh yeah of course!” Nino quickly said.

“Well, if you two need us just call.” Adrien added.

“Thank you, I’m going to try and get her through this.” Alya told them.

Alya watched from her peripheral vision as they hurried back outside, looking back at the girls every few steps. She knew how much they cared about Marinette and just wanted to help, but this time it’s a bad idea.

“They’re gone girl, don’t worry, it’s just you and me now, just you and me.” Alya whispered into Marinette’s hair.

It took a few more minutes until Marinette’s breathing evened and she wasn’t crying anymore. Alya held her for a little longer just to make sure that she’ll be okay. Alya slowly let go of her friend and sat there quietly. She noticed that Marinette had started on a breathing exercise to help her recover from the attack she just went through. 

‘Breathe in for 5 seconds. Breathe out for 7. Easy Peasy. You can do that.’ Marinette said to herself in her head.

When Marinette was calmer and had finished with her breathing technique, Alya smiled. 

“How are you feeling? Better?” Alya asked calmly.

“Light-headed and tired.” Marinette responded quietly.

“That’s alright. That’s normal after an anxiety attack. You know that. Don’t worry.” Alya reassured her.

“Yeah...yeah okay.” Marinette said sounding unsure. 

Alya waited another minute before speaking again. “Ready to get up yet? It’s okay if you’re not.” 

“Yeah. I think so.” Marinette said after another minute of silence. “Yeah, I am.

“Okay great. Let’s go,” Alya said as she grabbed Marinette’s hands and slowly started standing up, pulling her friend up with her. As they stood up, Alya put her arm around Marinette’s waist to steady her as she wobbled. They waited a moment before they started walking towards the exit. 

All Marinette thought about was going home. She just wanted to lie down. She also wanted to see Chat Noir. He was always a great comfort for her especially on a day when she has an attack.

When they reached the door, Alya opened it, letting Marinette out first. She was glad that it was dim out, since it got dark pretty early this time of year and it was almost 5 o’clock. Alya grabbed her hand and squeezed, reassuring her that she was there for her. They held hands as they walked out of the school doors and down the front steps. There weren’t many students outside which made sense because school ended over 15 minutes ago. Alya started pulling Marinette to the right which she assumed was in the direction of the boys. When she noticed them, they were both smiling brightly at her looking relieved. Nino immediately started closing the short distance between them and went over to Marinette.

“Is a hug okay, Mar?” Nino asked, knowing that sometimes she needs space after an attack but also she sometimes needs affection.

“Yeah, that’d be nice,” Marinette replied as she lifted her arms toward him. 

He closed the distance between them and gave her a nice warm hug. She put her head down in between the crease of her neck and shoulder and just laid it there for a moment. 

They stayed there like that for a few moments before she released him. After they released each other, Nino turned his head to the side and looked over at Adrien. Marinette   
followed his eyes and saw Adrien standing there patiently. Obviously waiting to give her a hug too. Nino took a few steps back as Adrien took a few step closer to her.

“Hey Mari.” Adrien smiled softly as he spoke.

She took a breathe. “Hey Adrien.”

“Is another hug good?” He said with hope that she would say yes.

“I’ll always accept a hug from you, ya dork,” She replied with a smile as she opened her arms once more for a hug.

His smile grew as he quickly closed the gap and pulled her into his arms. She held onto him tightly, as if he would disappear if she didn’t. 

‘How does he give the best hugs? I don’t understand.’ She thought.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked quietly, like it was a secret of some kind.

‘Say it. This is your chance. Do it now. Do it. Do it. Do it.’ She internally yelled.“I- uh, actually, can-can I talk to you about something? Something else?” It felt like she was holding her breath as she spoke.

He let go of her slowly and looked at her questioningly. “Yeah Mari, of course, anything, I’m here for you.” He replied eagerly.

“Okay... okay, can we talk somewhere, uhm without other people?” She asked slowly, scared of the answer that would be coming later.

“Uh yeah, if that would make it easier for you, then sure.” He said with a smile.

Adrien turned around to see Alya and Nino grinning widely and also kinda creepily. 

“Uh, I’m gonna take a walk with Mari, okay guys?” He told his other friends.

“Yup of course! Go! Go take a walk! Walks are good! So is talking! Very good indeed!” Alya aid loudly even though they were all less than five feet apart. He noticed her elbow Nino in the stomach. 

“Yea dudes, go take a nice walk, a very nice walk.” Nino said kind of out of breath as he bent over a little bit holding his stomach. 

Adrien looked confused while Marinette covered her face with her hands obviously embarrassed. 

“Okay.. well I’ll text you guys later.” He says with confusion still on his face.

Alya and Nino just smiled and started walking in another direction, which didn’t make sense since they’re houses were in the opposite direction.

Adrien looked over and smiled at Marinette.“Ready to go?” He asked.

‘Nope not at all,’ she thought. “Yup, let’s head to the park.” She finally said.

They started walking over to the park in comfortable silence as they walked close to each other, leaving barely any room between them. Their hands occasionally brushed which gave Marinette a little heart attack each time.

“Mari, is everything okay? You look like your thoughts are running wild.” He asked, breaking the silence.

‘Uhm that’s because I’m going a bit insane right now actually’ She replied in her head.

“Okay, okay, okay.. Okay..” She started but he interrupted. 

“Mari? Breathe.”

She took a long breath and slowly exhaled. “I have something to ask you.” She finally said.

“Ask me anything.”

“Are you sure?” She looked at him with a hope that he would change his mind.

“Of course, ask away.” He said with a smile that broke her heart.

‘This is it, you can do this, mother of Armani you can do this!’ Marinette practically screamed in her head. Once again she inhaled and exhaled slowly, then stopped walking and turned to him. He stopped too.

She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. ‘Ugh why is this so dang hard!’

She tried again. This time succeeding. 

“Adrien? Would you like to go to the Holiday Carnival with me?” She finally said proudly.

He opened his mouth to speak but she spoke again.

“By that, I mean, like, on a date. With me. To the Holiday Carnival. So? Will you?”

He went to respond again but she interrupted yet again.

“But if you want, we can go as friends and just have fun. Or we can forget that this ever happened. Yeah, we can do that. Or if you don’t want to friends anymore, I understand that   
too. Don’t worry. And if you-” She babbled.

He finally spoke up which quieted her. “Mari, you’re asking me on a date?”

“Yes?” She spoke quietly this time.

He started laughing. What the absolute heck. He’s bent over laughing at this point with a big bright smile on his face. She wants to cry. This is a bad sign.

‘Why in Christian Dior is he laughing at me. Welp, this wasn’t in any of my scenarios. This is so embarrassing.’

He finally stopped laughing and looked at her with all the happiness in the world, reminding her why Alya calls him Sir Sunshine.

“Mari, Marinette, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I have been asking you out for months and it has gone right over your head and now you’re the one asking me out. Wow.” He said with some laughter still in his voice.

She stood there in shock with her mouth open as if she were trying to catch flies.

“What.” That’s all that he could say, just, “What.”

He’s laughing again. Even harder this time, if that were even possible.

“Wait. Wait one fricken second. Wait. What. What the heck. What? What?! You’ve been asking me out for months?! Since when?! What in Marc Jacobs are you talking about?!” This… This made no sense. Had she fallen into a parallel universe? Yes. That would make sense. Or maybe this was a hallucination brought on by anxiety? 

“Gosh, you are so cute!” He said in between laughing.

“What?!” She exclaimed.

“Mari, what did you think I meant by asking you to go to lunch or dinner with me? Multiple times. To come to my photoshoot and be my motivation to smile? What about when I invited you to come to some fashion shows with me as my plus one? Really, Mari? Really?” He listed so many things that her head is spinning.

“Oh.My.God.” She froze, realizing how oblivious she had been. She stared at him as he smiled as her.

‘And he’s laughing again. Wow what a butt.’ She thought.

“You never answered my question” She realized.

“Well, what do you think my answer is?” He looked at her smirking.

“Oh don’t you pull that crud on me! I have anxiety, in my head the only answer you can give me is a negative one!” She smacked his arm as he laughs.

“Mari! Yes! Of course I’ll go on a date with you! I would never say no to that!” He grabbed her hands and holds them tight while looking into her eyes.

“You just said yes.” 

“Heck yeah I did.” He replied.

“Oh my Balmain, you just said yes. To a date. With me.” She said staring at him with wide eyes. 

He’s laughing. Again. That laugh will be the death of her.

“Okay. You know what. I dislike you very much right now and I’m taking back my offer. No date.” She said stubbornly.

“Nooooooo! Mari! You can’t do that!” He says still laughing.

“Nope. I’m done with you.” She says while trying to look grumpy. It’s not working.

He finally calms down and stops laughing. He grabs her hands and looks at her fondly. “Mari. Please?” He asks sweetly.

“Fine. I take back taking back my offer.” She said while still trying to frown. Still not working. Curse that super cute face of his.

They stay there for a moment just looking at each other. Marinette finally allowed herself to smile at him.

All of a sudden they hear cheering and clapping. They look to the side and see a bunch of their friends standing by a tree about 10 feet away. Alya was whistling at them and shouting who knows what. Nino is smiling as big as he probably can. Mylene and Ivan look like they’re crying. Alix was yelling. Max and Kim are clapping with proud looks on their faces. Rose was jumping up and down while Juleka shook her head with a sweet smile on her face.

Marinette put her head in her hands and Adrien just starts laughing again. 

“You guys all suck!” Marinette yelled over to the group watching them. “How long have you all been standing there?”

“Dude, we’ve been here this whole time.” Explained Nino.

“Mari, they legitimately followed us from school. How did you not notice?” Adrien asked her while looking at their friends.

“But-but, how did everyone know?” She sounded really confused.

“Mari, girl, you think that I was gonna let everyone miss out on this? Heck no!” Alya yelled as she started heading over towards the two.

“I dislike all of you very much right now.” She said while trying to frown, which was kind of hard since she couldn’t stop smiling.

“Hey, I told you that I needed to witness it, remember?” Nino said referencing their conversation this morning.

Marinette hid her face with her hands with embarrassment. She lifted her head to see Adrien looking at her with a soft look in his eyes.

‘Has he always looked at me like that? I really hope so.’ She wondered. She smiled back at him. Then she heard someone clear their throat and she turned her head to where the noise came from.

“Okay lovebirds, are you done staring at each other now?” Alya spoke up.

Kim started to laugh. “I can’t believe you finally did it shorty! I thought you’d never do it! Now I owe the other shorty 40 euros!” He said while laughing.

“Wait what?! Were you betting on us?!” Marinette yelled while her face lit up like a tomato.

“Well of course! I for one knew that you finally had the confidence to do it before we graduated. He didn’t think you would ever ask him out.” Alix said proudly.

“I’m so happy right now, you have no idea Marinette!” Rose smiled widely as she spoke.

Alix walked closer to Marinette and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m proud of you. I’m glad you finally worked up the nerve.”

Marinette wondered how red her face was from embarrassment.

She heard Adrien start to speak. “Hey guys, can we have some time alone? Pretty please?”

Alya rolled her eyes at Adrien’s request. “Ugh fine, you two go be cute and gross by yourself.”

Everyone quickly said their goodbyes to Adrien and Marinette.

Rose stayed behind as everyone started to walk away. “When do you want to start on cookies today?” Rose asked sweetly.

“Half hour?” replied Marinette.

“Sounds good! See you later guys!” Rose said while bouncing before walking away.

Marinette took a needed breath in and out then turned to Adrien, who was smiling fondly at her.

‘That idiot needs to stop looking at me like he’s in love with me because my heart can’t take it.’ She thought to herself.

He smiled brightly before speaking. “I still can’t believe you just asked me out.”

“Well, I can’t believe that you’ve been asking me out for months and I didn’t even realize.”

“So, when do you want to go to the Holiday Carnival? I’ve never been so I don’t know when it is.” He asked.

“Well, tomorrow is the first day of the carnival and the last day is Sunday, January 1st. And it’s only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. So, whenever you’re free.” She tried not to   
go on a tangent as she spoke

“Let me get my December schedule from Nathalie and see when I have time. But I’ll alway make time for you Mari.” He said with a smirk.

She lifted her hand and smacked his arm. “Oh shush.” She started to blush.

“Well, I have to get home and I know that you have some cookies to bake with Rose.” His bright smile fled from his face.

“Yeah, you’re right, I-” She didn’t get to finish her sentence.

“I’m always right.” He interrupted.

“Can you not be full of yourself for at least 2 seconds? Please?” She looked done with him.

“Hmm that might be kind of hard, I can try but you know what they say about models.” He said proudly.

“Oh yeah and I’m going on a date with the most obnoxious one.” The smirk that appeared on her face grew as she started to chuckle.

Next thing they know, they’re laughing and Adrien is holding on to Marinette’s shoulder to keep his balance and she has her arms clutching her stomach. When they finally stop   
laughing and take a few breaths, she looks up at him and smiles. He smiles warmly at her.

‘When did he get so close, he wasn’t this close before. I could go on my tippy toes and kiss him if I wanted to. No! Bad idea. Don’t think about kissing him. He probably doesn’t   
want that. Why would he want to kiss me? I would freak him out and he would be disgusted by me.’ Her thoughts turned negative and her anxiety starts to shove its way into her   
mind.

Adrien noticed that her breathing got loud and almost to the point of hyperventilating as the look on her face went to smiling to scared. And just like Alya, pumped into action.   
He started by asking things like, “Mari, Mari, can you hear me?”, “What happened?”, “What’s wrong?” to calming phrases like “It’s okay.”, “You’re safe.”, “It’ll be alright.” 

Her breathing evened out and she started to speak. “I’m fine, I’m sorry that you had to see that.”

“Mari, it’s fine, I’m your friend, I’m here for you.” He said calmly.

“Thank you Adrien. It means a lot.” She spoke in almost a whisper.

“Will you be okay getting home or do you want me to walk you?”

“I’m fine, I can walk across the street without having an attack.. I think.” She giggled after she said that.

“It’s not funny Mari, I’m just worried about you.” 

“I know you are, but I’m fine.”

“You’re so stubborn, you’re lucky you’re cute.” He said with a smile and a shake of his head.

Now she’s blushing so hard that more than half of her face is red. She looks down at their feet because he doesn’t want to see what kind of look he’s giving her.

She looks up as he starts to speak again. “I’ll text you later, okay?”

“Oh okay, see you tomorrow?

“Of course, bring me some hot chocolate?

“Of course.

Neither of them move from where they’re standing.They just stand there looking at each other, standing way too close for Marinette’s brain to handle.

Adrien takes a step back and goes to turn away . He quickly turns back to Marinette and leans in and kisses her on the cheek. It was a chaste brush of lips to her skin but it made   
her heart melt all the same.

‘No way, no, way, no fricken way, he just kissed my cheek, holy Versace that just happened.’ Her thought ran like crazy as she tried to understand what just happened. Her mouth gaping open with wide eyes and she stared at him like he had 2 heads. 

Adrien started to laugh because of her reaction. “Bye Mari.” He said as he backed away.

She shook her head and went back to reality. “Wha-you-ugh-Adrien!” She stammered.

He starts to laugh again as he walk away, looking over his shoulder at her.

“Bye nerd!” She finally says. She hears him still laughing as she turns away to walk home. She only gets a few feet away from the spot they were in when she finally processes all of today.

“Oh my goodness, oh my freakin goodness, I asked him on a date, I finally asked him out, I finally did it! And he said yes, he said yes, oh my goodness. He’s been asking me out for months, wow, just wow, who knew that I was so dense. He kissed me on the cheek! He actually kissed me on the cheek! I was worried about everything for no reason! Anxiety can fight me!” 

She talks out loud to herself as she walks to the bakery, not noticing any of her surroundings. Not noticing Alya and Nino waiting outside the doors to her parents’ bakery.

She gets to the door and stops. Turning her head to the left she finally sees her friends and jumps a little from the close proximity.

“I thought you guys went home?” Marinette asked.

“And what? Miss you and Adrien being all cute? Hell no!” Alya replied.

“Actually, I thought it was a good idea to not be creepy and go home instead of watching you both from afar.” Nino added.

Alya smacked his shoulder and began to defend herself. “We weren’t being creepy, we were just observing.” 

“I dislike you both.” Marinette huffed.

“Sooo, anything you want to tell us?” Alya was obviously curios of what happened after they walked away earlier.

“Yea Mar, spill the deets.” Nino said with a smirk.

Marinette looked down at her shoes as if they had the answer. “Well, nothing really important. We just talked about the Holiday Carnival and stuff.” 

“And what else!?” Alya said excitedly, as if she knew what was coming.

Marinette looked up slowly as she spoke her next words. “He kissed me on the cheek.” Now she was seriously blushing.

Alya screeched. Loudly. Nino just smiled. 

“Oh my god Mari! That’s so cute! I can’t believe it! Looks like he finally grew some-”

“Alya!” Nino smacked her in the stomach so she wouldn’t finish her sentence.

Marinette shoved her face in her hands, embarrassed. Next thing she knew she was being hugged by her friends. She relaxed into it.

“Mar, we are so happy for you.” Nino whispered into the hug.

“Yeah Mari, we just want you two dorks to be happy.” Alya laughed.

“Thanks you guys. It means a lot. I’m just so happy.” Marinette whispered back.

They all started to let go and Nino and Alya backed away a few steps. 

“We gotta get going Mar, but text us later, okay?” Nino said with a big smile.

“We’ll probably text you first, but we know you’ll be busy making cookies with Rose.” Alya said as she backed away.

“Okay, see you guys tomorrow.” Marinette said as she opened the door to the bakery.

She walked inside and saw only a few customers in the bakery. She saw her mother as the register and waved as she passed her. She walked upstairs and went all the way up to   
her room. Tikki immediately flew out of her bag and flew right in front of her face. 

“Marinette! Marinette! Marinette! Is it true?! Did you do it?! Did you finally ask him out and he said yes?! Did he really kiss you on the cheek?” Tikki was practically yelling.

“Yes! Yes! It’s all true! I did it and he said yes and kissed me on the cheek!” Marinette bounced up and down.

“This is so exciting! I’m so happy for you Marinette! When is the date?! What are you gonna wear?!” Tikki buzzed.

“Woah woah woah, calm down. We haven’t chosen a day for the date yet and I haven’t even had time to think about what I’m gonna wear.” Marinette sounded exhausted as she talked.

“Okay sorry for all the questions, I’m just so excited!” Tikki still wasn’t exactly calming down. 

“Well, so far, all I know, is that this is gonna be the best December yet.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette starts her annual tradition with Rose!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a whole year since my last update. Sorry. Anyway, I really liked writing this chapter so I hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> A big thank you to @angels-falling-stas on tumblr for being my awesome beta-reader!

Marinette took her phone out of her pocket and checked the time. She had a little less than 20 minutes ‘till Rose showed up downstairs to make cookies.

She thought about what Tikki asked, and the last question already started to bug her. 

‘What am I going to wear?’ she questioned herself. ‘Seriously what in Christian Lacroix am I going to wear on my date with Adrien freakin’ Agreste?!’ ‘

At this point she was freaking out internally. Okay, less than 20 minutes, time to start planning the date. She went over to her desk and sat down in her pink swivel chair. She reached for a notebook, put it in front of her on the desk and grabbed her black pen with a pink fluff ball on the top of it. Now time to brainstorm ideas.

“Okay. First things first, where are we going? We’re going to the Holiday Carnival. When? Well, to be determined. And finally, what am I going to wear? No idea.”

“Think. It’ll be outside. So, that means it’ll be cold. Very cold. Okay, I have to make sure the outfit is warm and comfy. Definitely something with sleeves. A turtleneck? A sweater? Maybe a thin turtleneck long-sleeve top with a loose sweater over it! Yeah, that sounds good.”

She stood up from her chair and walked to her closet and started looking through her clothes to see if there was anything she already owned or that she made that she can use for her special date outfit. After a few minutes of rummaging through clothes she came across a cute dark gray-ish blue sweater that wasn’t too thick and wasn’t paper thin. 

“Perfect!” She said aloud. 

As she looked for the perfect top to go under the sweater, she realized she didn’t have anything that she wanted for this outfit. 

Tikki flew over to beside her head. “Find anything to go under it?”

“No, I guess I’ll have to make the top.”

“Don’t rush this. Remember, you have time, a whole month actually,” Tikki reminded her.

She grabbed her phone from her pocket and checked the time again. She had about 5 minutes before Rose arrived. So, she walked over to her desk, put her phone on the desk, sat in her chair in front of her notebook, and picked up her pen, almost as if she was starting her process all over again. 

She hummed in thought of trying to figure out what she wanted the turtleneck to look like. 

“First. Shape.”

She sketched out an outline for the turtleneck. 

“Second. Design. It can’t be plain since my sweater is plain.” She tapped her pen for a moment. “Small polka dots? No. Tiny butterflies? I don’t think so. Ladybugs! Too obvious. Stripes? Ugh! Definitely not. Wait! Thin vertical stripes on the body and horizontal on the neck! Yes!”

She then added the stripes onto the sketch. 

A noise interrupted her train of thought and pulled her back into reality. Looking over to her phone she saw that she got a text from Rose.

[The Sweetest Flower: Hi! I just arrived!]

“Guess I’ll finish designing later.”

Picking up her phone, she sent a quick reply to her friend and put the phone in her pocket as she stood up. 

[Me: I’ll meet you in the bakery!]

“Have fun!” Tikki said as Marinette was rushing out of the room. 

Practically running downstairs to see Rose, she tripped on absolutely nothing and fell down the last set of stairs to the bakery. Getting up and laughing a little at herself, she walked over to the front of the bakery where Rose was waiting for her with a big smile on her face, talking to Marinette’s parents. 

“Hey Rose!” She said as she walked over and hugged the other girl. 

“Hi Marinette! Rose exclaimed. 

Marinette started walking with Rose to the back of the bakery where they make all of the baked goods. “Are you excited to make cookies?” She asked Rose. 

“Most definitely. I can’t believe it’s already been a whole year since we last did this.”

Marinette laughed. “Time really does fly.”

When they got to the kitchen, Rose started bouncing a little, showing her excitement. “What cookies are we going to start with this time?”

“Rose, you know I always let you pick what kind of cookies we do for the first batch of the year,” Marinette gave Rose a silly look that made Rose giggle.

Rose sighed with a smile, “You’re right, you’re right.”

Marinette looked at her for a moment, letting her think about what cookies to make today. 

“Can we start with some langue de chat biscuits, I know they aren’t exactly cookies, but they’re pretty close to it.” Rose asked in a quiet voice.

“Of course! Starting off simple this year, good idea. Should we cover them in chocolate? 

“Yes, that’d be awesome!” Rose was still very excited about their whole tradition.

“Okay, let’s start grabbing ingredients. Do you still remember where everything is? We haven’t moved anything.” Marinette asked. 

“Well, we’ve been doing this for officially 10 years, so I’m pretty sure I know where everything is by now.” Rose giggled. She had the sweetest little giggle. 

Marinette and Rose started grabbing the items needed as Marinette listed them off. 

“Unsalted butter. Icing sugar. Plain flour. Salt. Vanilla extract. Six large eggs. Semi-sweet chocolate. Four baking trays. Two large mixing bowls. Two electric hand mixers. Two largeTwo large spoons.s Two piping bags with two, one centimeter round nozzles.”

They ran around the kitchen getting everything and placed it all on a large metal table. After they were done, they took a few breaths and laughed.

Marinette looked up at Rose and smirked. “Ready for the fun part?”

“You know it!” Rose gave two thumbs up. 

Marinette walked over to one of the double convection ovens and preheated it to 180 degrees Celsius.

Rose and Marinette worked on autopilot as they talked and laughed. They lined all the baking trays with baking parchment paper. They separated the ingredients so they can make two batches at once. Simultaneously, the girls put their butter and icing sugar in large mixing bowls and mixed it with electric hand mixers. Once both of their mixes were pale and smooth, they put in the flour, salt, vanilla extract and mixed in the egg whites. Once the mixes was perfect, they spooned it into piping bags and piped a bunch of small straight lines onto the parchment paper covered trays. When all 4 baking trays were filled with the biscuits, the girls put the trays into one of the large refrigerators. 

Now they wait. They had about 15 to 20 minutes to just chill while they waited for the biscuit dough to be firm. Marinette set a timer on her phone then the girls went upstairs to Marinette’s room. When they got there, Rose sat on the chaise while Marinette opted for her swivel chair.

“Okay, so, tell me! Are you excited for your date with Adrien?” Rose squealed. 

“Oh. My. Prada. Of course I’m excited! It’s a date! With Adrien! One of my best friends! The most amazing guy ever!” Marinette was bouncing in her seat at this point. 

Rose laughed as Marinette went on with her tangent of how ecstatic she was. 

“So, what’s the plan?” 

Marinette froze. “Plan?”

“Yeah, the plan for your date. Have you planned everything yet?”

Marinette took a breath. “Oh, I haven’t gotten the chance. I only just asked him today. I’m slowly planning the outfit though.” 

“For some reason, I thought you would’ve planned everything already. I know how you are when you’re excited about something.”

“I would’ve, but I wanted to ask him first and then take my time with planning it. Not to rush it. I want it to be great. I would say perfect, but with me, anything can go wrong and I’m just not going to hope for perfection.”

“Wow Marinette, that’s very mature of you. I’m glad you’re not thinking negatively but not unrealistically.

Marinette let out a chuckle and gave Rose a small smile. “I’ve been trying to work on not having these grandiose daydreams about my future and instead going for a realistic yet positive outlook on life.” She kept her hands in her lap trying not to use the crazy all-over hand gestures that she usually does. 

Rose gave a sweet smile. “Good for you Marinette, I’m all on board for this better outlook on life you are having.”

They sat in silence for a moment, then Rose spoke up. “So, you said that you were planning the outfit.”

“Yes! I I think I’m gonna go with a comfy but cute look. I’d show you my design but it’s not finished yet and I’d like to make sure it’s exactly what I want before I show anyone.” 

“I get that. I can’t wait to see the finished outfit!”

A noise coming from Marinette’s phone grasped their attention. Marinette took out her phone and saw that it was the timer for the biscuits.

“Let’s go finish the langue de chat biscuits” Marinette said with a big smile.

Rose followed Marinette down to the bakery’s kitchen. 

When they entered the kitchen, they immediately went to the refrigerator and took the trays out and put them directly in the oven. Marinette put another timer on her phone, this time for 10 minutes. Instead of going to her room, they just stayed in the kitchen. Marinette went to one of the tables that has a tray filled with macarons on it. 

“Would you like some?” Marinette asked Rose. 

“Are you sure I can have one?” Rose seemed a little nervous about taking a macaron.

“Yes Rose, I’m sure that you can have one. You can even have two if you’d like.” Marinette raised her eyebrows in question of whether she wants some.

“Okay, if you’re sure. Oh! Which kind are these?” Rose pointed to the pink macarons with a flower drawn on it in gold.

“Seriously.” Marinette looked at her friend with a deadpan expression. 

“Yeah, it looks delicious.” Rose said obliviously. 

“Rose. Look at it. It’s pink. With a flower on it.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty.”

“Rose. You’re killing me here. Really? You can’t figure it out?” Marinette looked stressed. 

“Wait. Oh my goodness! It’s a rose!” Rose finally understood what was happening. 

Marinette rolled her eyes with a smile. “Yes Rose, this one is the rose macaron.”

“Can I have that one.” Rose seemed very excited with this rose macaron.

“Of course, go for it.” Marinette giggled. 

Rose reached for the pink macaron that had the same name as her and took a bite. Instantly she looked like she was in pure bliss after one single bite.

Marinette grabbed a light brown macaron with a pale yellow filling in the middle and took a bite. 

“Rose, do you like it?” Marinette asked her even though she knew the answer.

“It’s fantastic. I can’t even describe the flavor! It’s just so delicious!” Rose replied before eating the rest of her macaron. 

Marinette laughed. “I’m glad you’re enjoying the rose macaron, Rose.”

Rose looked at Marinette’s hand holding the macaron questioningly. “What flavor is that?”

Marinette smirked. “Salted caramel.” She took another bite leaving one bite left of her macaron. 

Rose’s eyes went wide. “Salted caramel! That sounds amazing!”

“Would you like one of those? Or would you like me to tell you some of the other flavors on the tray?”

She pointed to the macarons and said the flavors. “Pistachio.” Which was a light green with dark green in the middle. “White chocolate.” It was white-ish with a beige middle. “Matcha.” This one had an olive green color throughout the whole thing with specks of dark green on top. “Rose. Salted caramel. Blackberry.” The blackberry was a dark purple and the middle was such a dark purple that it almost looked black. “Lavender.” The whole macaron was just a nice light purple. 

“So, which one would you like?” Marinette asked, knowing this was a tough decision.

“Oh! They all look so good! How about the lavender?” Rose had her hands squishing her cheeks as she spoke. 

“How did know I know that you were going to pick that one?” Marinette laughed. 

“Baker’s intuition?” Rose said simply. 

They both looked at each other and both ended up laughing so hard they were on the floor. 

The timer on Marinette’s phone went off, scaring both girls who weren’t expecting the shrill noise to come from less than a foot away. They jumped up and ran to get oven mitts. Once they put them on, they went to the oven and took out all of the trays and put them on the counter. 

“Okay, so while we wait for these to cool down, let’s melt the chocolate.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Rose immediately grabbed the chocolate.

Marinette had a sauté pot on the stove warming up as Rose put the chocolate into it. It took a few minutes to melt as they constantly stirred it so the chocolate wouldn’t burn. Once it was all melted, they took the pot off the stove and brought it to the metal table. Rose and Marinette both picked up a langue de chat biscuit and dipped it into the melted chocolate then put it back onto the tray. After they dipped every single one into the chocolate and put them back, Marinette and Rose put all of the trays in the refrigerator so the chocolate can harden. 

Marinette put a timer on her phone to check the langue de chat biscuits in 10 minutes. 

“So Rose, how are you and Juleka?” Marinette asked with hope for a positive answer. 

Rose immediately turned bright red. Slowly, but surely, she had a big grin on her face within seconds.

Rose and Juleka have been a couple for about a year but there’s definitely been something between them for a long time. Marinette is pretty sure they would’ve been a couple a long time ago if Juleka came out earlier. Juleka only came out as gay a few months before she started dating Rose. Rose had come out a few years ago, even though she didn’t really need to come as bisexual. It was kinda just known by everyone when she would talk about having a girlfriend one day and then a boyfriend the next day when they were little kids on the playground. 

“We’re good. Really good.” Rose had a sappy smile on her face. 

“I’m glad. You two are pretty perfect for each other.” Marinette just hoped she could have a relationship as perfect as theirs. 

“Thanks Marinette.”

“You should take Juleka to the Holiday Carnival this year like I’m doing with Adrien. It’s a perfect winter date!

“That’s actually a great idea! I didn’t think of that! I think she would enjoy that! I’ll text her about it now!” Rose’s excited voice made Marinette smile.

As Rose took out her phone to text Juleka, Marinette’s mind started to wander. She started to think about her date with Adrien. Nervous? She wasn’t nervous. Terrified? Sounds about right. She wanted it to be absolutely perfect, even though she knew that perfection was a lot to ask for. Honestly, she just wanted to have a good time with him without having anxiety. Since she became such great friends with Adrien, she hasn’t had much anxiety when it comes to being around him and since he’s one of her best friends now, she’s easily comfortable with him. But this is different, this is a date, an actual date. Her biggest fear when it comes to this date, is that he will regret it afterwards and she really hopes that doesn’t happen.

An obnoxious noise coming from her phone snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked over at Rose and smiled. 

“Ready to go eat some langue de chat biscuits?” She asked Rose with a small smile, trying to push her thoughts about the date to the back of her mind. 

“Yup!” Rose bounced a little signaling her excitement.

Marinette gave her a big smile then turned to the refrigerator and walked over to it as Rose followed. Rose walked in front of Marinette, opened the refrigerator and grabbed one of the trays. 

“Don’t think we can eat more than one tray? Marinette asked. 

“I’m not sure yet, let’s start eating an we’ll see,” Rose said with a look that showed that she knew that could barely eat one tray of biscuits.

When she put the tray on the table, they both grabbed a langue de chat biscuit and took a bite. Each girl had a smile on their face as they chewed. They then spoke at the exact same time. 

“Wow.”

Then the laughter started.

“I haven’t had one of these in a while,” said Rose. 

Marinette looked at Rose fondly. “I’ve missed baking with you.”

Rose immediately jumped forward and gave her friend a warm hug. 

“I love spending time with you Marinette! I know it’s been difficult to get some time just us with school kicking our butts.”

Marinette squeezed Rose into the hug and when she let go, went back in for one last squeeze. 

After the girls ate a few langue de chat biscuits, Marinette packed up a few for Rose to give to her family and Juleka. Marinette walked her outside and gave her a hug when they said their goodbyes, as if they wouldn’t see each other tomorrow at school.

Marinette then walked back into the bakery and noticed that her mother wasn’t busy with a customer and walked up to her.

“Mama, if you aren’t busy, can you help me put the rest of the langue de chat biscuits that Rose and I made in the display cases so we can sell them?” 

“Of course Marinette.” She smiled at her daughter and walked with Marinette to the bakery’s kitchen. 

They both grabbed trays from the refrigerator and brought them into the front of bakery. Marinette’s father noticed what the ladies were doing and quickly made space in one of the display cases for the biscuits. Once Marinette and her mother put the treats in the case, she thanked her parents and gave them kisses on the cheeks, went upstairs to her family’s actual kitchen. After grabbing some cookies for Tikki, she climbed the stairs to her room and opened the trap door.

“Hi Tikki!” She immediately said when she closed the door.

Tikki flew over to Marinette and looked delighted to see her. 

“How was baking with Rose. What kind of treat did you make this time?” Tikki was always excited to know about the possibility of cookies. 

Marinette giggled at her Kwami. “We made langue de chat biscuits covered in chocolate. I had so much fun with her. It was nice to have some one on one time with Rose. We haven’t hung out just us in a while. We’ve been so busy.”

“I’m glad you got to enjoy one of your little traditions.” Tikki zipped around the room as she spoke. 

“Oh! I brought you a few cookies. Don’t eat them too fast because I’m not going to leave my room anytime soon. I’m going to work on my top’s design off the date.”

“Don’t lock yourself up here all day and night though. You need to eat dinner later and get some sleep tonight.” Tikki was always very serious about Marinette taking care of herself. 

“Now to decide what colors for the turtleneck.”

She sat down in the chair at her desk and grabbed her pen and got to work. 

Knowing that the sweater is a dark gray-ish blue, she knew she needed to do a lighter color for the top.

“How about a pale blue for the base of the top and dark gray stripes.”

After picking the colors and lightly coloring the sketch, she realized that she wanted more detail. 

“What else can I do without it being too much? Maybe stripes with 2 different thicknesses that go one after the other. Okay that sounds good. Oh! Maybe they should be different colors, not too bold, but simple. Dark gray for the thicker stripes and the thinner ones will be … white! Yes, that’s it”

She started a new sketch to fit the look she wanted. She felt that it still needed something. The neck of the top needed a little flare. 

“I know exactly what to do! White buttons! Only 3 though, and they will go on one side of the neck that only goes 3 quarters of the way down to the shoulder!”

When she she added it to the sketch, she grinned. It was perfect! Exactly what would be great under the loose sweater. Not too crazy but just enough detail to bring attention to the turtleneck. 

“Now for the rest of the outfit. I have the turtleneck and sweater, but what about pants.” She decided to go look through what pants she had. 

“I don’t want anything with a design on it and I still want to be comfy. Also, simplicity is best for this outfit. How about jeans. Simple. Easy.” She grabbed a pair of light blue jeans and put it on her chaise with her sweater.

“It’s time to pick shoes. Definitely nothing plain, since my outfit isn’t too bold.” She then went to check out what shoes she had to choose from. She instantly found what what she wanted. A pair of light brown suede wedges that are almost 4 inches high with a faux fur trim and a lace-up front. She grabbed the shoes and put them on the floor next to the chaise. 

“If I’m going to wear these shoes, then I’ll definitely use my brown, lizard skin shoulder bag.” She quickly went to find the bag and when she did, put it on the chaise with the rest of her things.

“I think I should go with gold jewelry, if I’m going to be wearing brown.” 

She walked over to her desk and searched through her jewelry, looking at earrings first. She was able to wear earrings that weren’t her miraculous since she got a second hole on both her ears. When she turned 16, her parents allowed her to get the second ear piercings. Now, she has her miraculous in the hole right above the original piercing. Deciding on her gold plated hoops that were embellished with crystals. She set them aside on her desk. She stopped to think and then figured out what necklace she wanted to wear without even looking through her options. She dug out a gold plated brass necklace with a star hanging on it that has a moonstone in the middle and crystals surrounding it, then set it aside with the earrings that she chose. 

“Maybe I should add a watch to this outfit. What do you think Tikki?” She questioned her little Kwami who was sitting on her desk beside her, munching on a cookie. 

“A watch would be nice. I have an idea! Go with the rose gold one!” 

Marinette thought for a moment and decided that Tikki gave a great suggestion. She searched for the watch that Tikki was talking about then pulled out a rose gold square faced watch. She put it with the other jewelry that she decided on and smiled. 

“This is perfect. I’m so excited to wear all of this.” She bounced as she talked to Tikki. 

“Now all you have to do is make the turtleneck. Right?”

“Yup! That’s all that’s all that is left to do. I’ll go get the fabric tomorrow after school. I can’t wait to show Alya my outfit! Oh! I’ll skype her, hopefully she’s not busy. I’ll text her first.”

She pulled out her phone from her back pocket and opened her messages and clicked on Alya’s contact. She typed quickly and sent out a text. 

[Me: Hey! Are you busy??? Can we skype? I want to show you my outfit for my date with Adrien!]

She went to put her phone back in her pocket but her phone beeped signaling that Alya already replied within seconds. 

[The Queen of the World: Not busy lets skype omg I can’t wait to c the outfit]

Alya’s text talk always gave her a headache. She typed out a response and put her phone down on the desk. 

[Me: Well, go get online! I’ll call in a minute]

She sat down in her desk chair and turned her computer on. When it started up, she opened skype and saw that Alya went online already. She clicked the video call button and waited. 

All of a sudden, Alya’s face took up the screen. 

“Hey girl! Long time no see!” Alya shouted. 

Marinette was glad she didn’t put headphones in. 

“Hey Alya! You ready to see the outfit?” 

“You know it girl! Lemme see!” Alya looked psyched. 

“So, I decided to wear a thin turtleneck long-sleeve top with a loose sweater over it and jeans. I’m making the turtleneck, so let me show you the design for it.” Marinette held up her notebook that was opened up to the page with the design. She then put the notebook down and went over her chaise and picked up the sweater and showed them to the camera on the computer. “This is the sweater that I’m going to wear over it.” She put it down and picked up the jeans and faced them to the computer. “And these are the jeans. She then put them on top of the sweater and picked up the shoes. “Then I’ll be wearing these wedges.” She put them on the floor and picked up the bag. “This bag.” She put it down and walked over to her desk and grabbed the earrings and necklace that she chose and held the necklace up with one hand and the earrings in the other. “With these earrings and this necklace.” She put them both down and picked up the watch. “And this watch.” Then put it down. 

She took a breath and walked over to the computer and sat back in her chair. “And that’s my outfit!”

Alya smiled. “Mari, that outfit is so damn cute! You’re gonna look awesome and make Adrien drool.” 

Marinette laughed at Alya’s comment. “You really think it’s cute. I feel like it’s too simple, you know? Too plain, I don’t know.

Alya scoffed. “No, just stop. It’s super cute. Yeah, it might be a little simple, but this isn’t your fashion war with Chloe. This is a nice date with Adrien, you don’t need to be all flashy.”

“Thanks Alya.”

The girls talked for a while until Marinette’s mother opened the door in the floor and told her it was time for dinner. She said goodbye to Alya and promised that she would text her later, then hung up the call. 

Before she went downstairs for dinner, she took a minute to think. 

“Alya’s right, I’m going to look awesome.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear what you guys think of the story! Leave a comment!
> 
> Or come yell at me on tumblr!
> 
> gayfairyroyalty is my tumblr


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